Citizens work with journo to hold congressman accountable

Another sighting of the future! Only it’s happening right now. I love it when that happens.

Here in journalism, our hands are wrung hard and dry into useless, begging claws over the survivability of the profession. You need us, I swear. We just haven’t figured out exactly how the relationship will work, for you and for us.

Monday on Politico’s Capital Hill blog, The Crypt, reporter Ryan Grim asked for and got a lot of public help in nailing down some incendiary remarks by North Carolina Republican congressman Robin Hayes at a rally for John McCain. Mr. Grim got plenty of contributions; the updates on his blog based on eyewitness input made the story unfold like a good murder mystery.

Politics and entertainment together, and it’s not even a sex scandal.

The Crypt, borrowing from the Charlotte Observer newspaper, quoted Rep. Hayes telling the crowd that “liberals hate real Americans that work and achieve and believe in God.” A Hayes spokeswoman then denied the congressman ever said that. The reporter swore he had notes to prove it. But all of a sudden it was a he said/he said thing.

So Mr. Grim asked to hear from anyone who was at the rally. He also tracked down a local reporter, who confirmed the quote. One attendee emailed The Crypt that he was at the rally, heard the comment and timed them at 10:30. Then another local reporter noted she’d Tweeted the same comments at 10:41 (but hadn’t put it in her print story).

“I relied mostly on other reporters” to get it right, Mr. Grim told me in a phone conversation. But “one reason I put the email (from a civilian) was because the timing matched up with” the Twitter post. In his blog post, Mr. Grim also thanks a local blogger for helping track the whole thing down.

At that point, the Rep. Hayes spokeswoman was still denying it, accusing The Crypt of “irresponsible journalism.” But, oops, along comes a local radio reporter, answering Mr. Grim’s call for witnesses, with a tape of the speech. And right there in the Congressman’s own voice is the sentence that had caused the scandal.

Bad moment for Congressman Hayes – this could have been about a Democrat or any other species – but a great day for collaboration and the facts. That’s how it should (and can) work.

“If you blindly go out calling for general contributions” from the public on any topic, Mr. Grim told me, “it can be chaos.” He cites the short life of web site Hot Soup. “They did it wrong. But if it’s more focused – asking whether you were at this rally in Concord – even people who don’t normally contribute to blogs are likely to say “I was there, or I know someone who was.” I got a lot of that. You’ll get fewer nut cases.”